Oscar Wilde Fan?

 Possibly the coolest postcard I have found to date. Possibly.It's definitely old, late 1800's to early 1900's would be my guess. But that isn't what makes it cool. First of all, what is written is hilarious. Let's start there. The postcard reads, "My dear Miss Prism, Visiting my old stomping grounds at Oxford and wanted to send you a quick note. The weather remains charming. I got a chance to read you 3 volume novel - I found it grotesque and irreligious. I did, however, enjoy the illustrations of the Fall of the Rupee - too sensational!! I'll visit soon, we'll have tea and cucumber sandwiches. By the by, thought you should know that the stain on the lining*? was not from a temperance beverage, but from baby Jack's incontinence! warmest regards, Algy."

Alright, first of all, telling her friend her books were "grotesque and irreligious" was pretty bold. But mentioning that any stain on the card was definitely the product of baby Jack's incontinence was too good. You'd hate to have someone think you had consumed a "temperance beverage." Total scandal.

So I read this postcard a few times, and something started to seem familiar about the names. Oh, my goodness. I started putting the names into Google and low and behold guess what came up? Algy, Laetitia, and baby Jack all match characters from Oscar Wilde's last and most popular play, The Important of Being Earnest. The play debuted in London on February 14th in 1895.  Was this why the postcard was never sent? How badly do I want to meet whomever it was that wrote this! Too funny.

Cloetta Chocolate

Cloetta was established in 1862 in Copenhagen by the three Swiss brothers Bernhard, Christopher and Nutin Cloetta. The movement expanded and in 1873 a factory was built in Malmö. This factory was moved in 1901 to Ljungsbro. The Cloetta family sold the business in 1917 to the Swedish Chocolate Factory AB with Svenfelt family as majority owner. There's the nutshell history. So, the question is this, how old is this paper, ad, bookmark thing I found in one of my books? 
                                                                                                    

I am going to guess the 1920's to 40's. Mostly based on my absolute love for that time period, and this girls hair and clothing. The card says Gourmet Bitter chocolate for connoisseurs, new healthy and tasty, among other things. I believe this particular box of chocolates might be dark chocolate covered gooseberries. Sounds good, cannot say I have ever had a gooseberry. Bucket list add right there. 

This card is in Swedish, which is really cool because my grandfather was 100% Swedish. 100% anything is kind of rare anymore. Perhaps I should have a chocolate covered gooseberry actually IN Sweden?! Madness or brilliance, I can't decide. But either way, Sweden is definitely on the bucket list. The bucket list currently has things scratched out and completed, and there are always new things going onto it. Just as bucket lists should be. And no, I am not old nor do I have a fatal disease, but waiting to start knocking out a bucket list makes no sense to me at all. Insert sappy, cliche sayings about living life to the fullest, don't wait til tomorrow, etc. here. They do have a point though.

Selma Lagerlof Obituary 1940

 Selma Lagerlof was born November 20, 1858 and died on March 16, 1940. She was a Swedish Author, was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was well known for her children's book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. She first worked as a school teacher and then eventually quite teaching to write full time. She traveled through Italy, Palestine, and Jerusalem which served as inspiration for some of her work. Selma was also a speaker for the Country Association for Women's Suffrage and spoke at the International Suffrage Congress in Stockholm in June of 1911 where she gave the opening address. She also spoke at the victory party of the Swedish suffrage movement after women suffrage had been granted in May of 1919.

One really cool thing Selma did just prior to her death in 1940 was to intervene with the Swedish royal family to secure the release of Nelly Sachs from Germany. Nelly Sachs was a German-Jewish writer and personal friend of Selma's. Sach and Sach's mother were able to catch the very last flight from Germany to Sweden for asylum from the Nazi's.

 This is an announcement of her death in a Danish newspaper published in 1940. She passed away at Marbacka, which is a mansion in Sunne Municipality in Varmland, Sweden where she was born and raised. Marbacka is now kept as a memorial estate for Selma and is preserved and shown as it was at the time of her death. You can get a guided tour of the main building and visitors can also visit the gardens, a cafe, and a bookstore. There is a memorial exhibition of Lagerlof's life and writings in the barn on the property.

Solid history lesson here, what else can you say about a writer, an activist, and the type of person who who came through for a friend during WWII. Awesome.
.

A Cyclist Greeting Postcard

This is a postcard that was never mailed. Never written on, nothing. It's printed in Denmark and has a cute little drawing of a person riding a bike where the stamp should go. I must assume that whomever purchased this postcard meant to send it or buy it as a keepsake from a vacation. I have to admit, this wouldn't be my first choice.

Pretty trees, check. A bicycle, check. But then you throw in this Billie Jean King looking woman, I kind of lose my woo hoo for the picture. Don't get me wrong, Billie Jean rocked the tennis court, but shazam, short 70's style hair probably didn't even look good then, let alone now. Look at me all judging today, knowing full well when I was a little girl I desperately wanted the Farrah Fawcett long feathered bangs look. That's right, Charlie's Angels were the bomb.  Joan Jett, she knew how to wear short hair in the day. She kicked butt and took names, you know she did. The chick on this card is staring off into space, I am sure the photographer was guiding her. Look like you're contemplating something, finding your zen out in the woods. Oy, I can just see it.

It's funny to go back and read some of my posts on this blog. I can tell what kind of day I was having or my mood just by reading them. When I read this post someday in the future, I'm sure I'll be wondering why I was in such a snarky mood. Must be lack of chocolate, luckily I have some in the freezer and ready for me. Only frozen chocolate, M&M's to be exact. Heaven.

Mansion a la Pride and Prejudice?

One interesting thing about antique books is that instead of printing a picture directly on the pages, some books have pictures pasted into them. Who knew, right? I am guessing that is what this picture is. It's really small, only 2 inches by 3 inches or so, and the paper is very thin.

If you've seen any of the versions of Pride and Prejudice perhaps you can see what I see in this picture. Whether it's Colin Firth, Laurence Olivier, or
Matthew Macfadyen, it all works in my head in this house. Especially the end of the movie when Mr. Darcy is about to go in and express his feelings one last time. Sigh, love the book, love the movies.

A Letter, 1947

 A lovely little envelope with a letter in Danish that was dated August 20, 1947. The envelope is smaller than a regular envelope and feels incredibly soft, as though it is older than it is dated. The letter is folded as though it's a greeting card and our writer ran out of room and wrote upside down on one page of the letter and the ending comments roll back around to the front of the letter. The letter is written what looks like school lined paper.

I miss getting letters. The ones that mean so much to you that you carry it around in your purse or wallet and you have read it so many times it's starting to fall apart along the fold lines. It's so strange to realize that new generations will never have that experience. And no, printing off an email and rereading it doesn't count. Typed words on a page are nearly as personal as a hand written letter.

Hans Holbein and the Portrait de Didler Erasme

Hans Holbein was a German artist who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and he made a significant contribution to the history of book design. But he is most famous for his portraits. He was the kings painter to Henry VIII for heaven sakes. If you Google him you will see and recognize many of his paintings. This particular postcard has the Portrait de Didler Erasme on it.

Erasme was a priest, philosopher, Latin writer, humanist, and theologian of the Burgundian Netherlands. He is recognized as one of the greatest humanists of the Renaissance. There are several famous paintings of him, you will, or should recognize them if you look them up. Yeah, I was being a little snarky with the should part of that last sentence. I think we as a society as a whole have traded in our time and energies from reading and learning about history and art to staring at our phones, computers,TV's, and iPads and so on. I am also guilty of this travesty, so I am equally chastising myself as I write this. Yes, I know we can see art and read and learn history on all of these devices, but seriously, aren't we all watching and doing other things 99% of the time?

All right, back to the postcard. It was printed in Paris and was sold at The Louvre. The only date on the postcard is June 17, 1947. Two years after the end of WWII. No stamp, but it is addressed to someone. Perhaps they handed the card over directly instead of mailing it. It's a short message, perhaps just a token to say I was thinking of you during my time in Paris. I do feel a tad guilty when I post things like this, I do the research into the artist and the piece of art and then I only write a little bit about them. I try to not sound like a textbook, and boy it's hard sometimes to not ramble on and on about some of these things. So, I will simply leave you with a promise that if you look up Hans Holbein or Erasme (both?) you will not be disappointed.